The Overwatch team is “focusing on other work in the franchise”

Activision Blizzard says that it’s looking to develop the Overwatch universe. In an earnings call that took place earlier this week, Blizzard president J Allen Brack told investors that the game’s development team is continuing to work on the game, but also to attempt to grow the scope of the world around it.

In the call (via SeekingAlpha) Brack said that “over the rest of the year, we’ll continue to add new heroes and new maps and new experiences” to the game. He went on to say that “last quarter I talked about how we have very large ambitions for the Overwatch universe and how it can develop over time.” He then revealed that going forward, the team would be looking into “the balance of working on the existing game as well as […] focusing on the other work that they have.”

“Overwatch is a huge tentpole franchise for Blizzard and we’re continuing to dedicate the resources and the attention, so that we can continue to grow the community and the franchise over time.”

The comments about new Overwatch heroes isn’t too surprising – new characters arrive on a semi-regular basis. What’s more interesting is that development time will apparently be split between ongoing development and this mysterious “other work.”

What that might be is anybody’s guess, but there’s already plenty of eager speculation on display in the Overwatch subreddit. Discussions about single-player or multiplayer narrative campaigns both surfaced, as did a Left 4 Dead-like Horde mode. If Archives Events are anything to go by, I imagine one of those possibilities is more likely than the others, but who knows what the devs could be working on behind the scenes?